1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication system, and in particular, to a system and method for easily checking the status of another party (e.g., driving or in conference) or the operational status of his terminal (e.g., busy, power-off, or reception rejected) without dialing the other party over an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, there is no way of knowing the status of a called terminal in a mobile communication system without dialing the terminal. If a caller dials the called terminal, an exchange checks the status of the called terminal and notifies the caller of the status of the called terminal (e.g., power-off, busy or no answer) by an ARS (Audio Response System) voice message. In the case of an additional service such as call forwarding, the caller cannot know the status of the called terminal either.
In another aspect of the mobile communication system, after the caller transmits an SMS (Short Message Service) message, he cannot know whether the SMS message has arrived at a destination successfully or if the called party has read it. Even if the called terminal is in an SMS message rejection state, the caller transmits the SMS message in vain. Moreover, if the called party sets his terminal to various states including “reception rejected”, “in conference”, “call forwarding to . . . ”, or “driving”, the caller does not realize that the called party is not available until he dials the called terminal.
The above conventional technology exhibits the following problems:
For a voice call service: The caller is not informed that the called terminal is set to call forwarding, is unavailable for answering (or power-off), or is busy by an ARS voice message from a network until he dials the called terminal.
For a SMS message transmission: There is no knowing whether an SMS message has arrived at the called terminal. Depending on the configuration of called terminal, the caller may wonder whether the called party receives the SMS message the moment the caller transmits it, or whether the SMS message just reaches an SMS center, if the called terminal is in the power-off state.
In either of the above-mentioned services, there is no way for the called party to notify the caller of his current status like “reception rejected”, “in conference”, “call forwarding to . . . ”, or “driving”.